Major Scoop on ‘Ringer’s Many Mysteries

“Ringer” is one of the most complicated shows on television this season. For those keeping score, Bridget (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a former stripper and drug addict, is impersonating her wealthy socialite twin sister Siobhan – whom she believes committed suicide – with the hopes of avoiding the FBI and the little known Wyoming mob. Siobhan, however, is actually alive and well in Paris, and working some sort of con.

There’s also the matter of the man Bridget killed in self-defense, the affair Siobhan was having with her best friend’s husband and Siobhan’s pregnancy. If you’re confused, be sure to watch Tuesday’s episode, “A Whole New Kind of Bitch.” It clarifies several plot points and has one doozy of a twist ending.

Now that Bridget has revealed her identity to Siobhan’s best friend Gemma (Tara Summers), she finds herself in more jeopardy. As co-creator Eric Charmelo puts it, “Just because the secret’s out to one person doesn’t mean it’s out to the collective. The drive in the episode is to try to contain the oil spill, if you will, so it’s…will Gemma be a friend or a foe? Will she be an adversary?”

Charmelo and Executive Producer Pam Veasey gave us scoop on the rest of the season:

Amber Benson and Jason Dohring Guest Star

There will be a mini-“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” reunion when Amber Benson, who played lesbian witch Tara, guest stars. She will be playing a very different role. “She is a stripper that was a coworker of Bridget’s. She was stripping at Club Cage in Rock Springs Wyoming and she’s seen better days,” says Charmelo. “Veronica Mars” Jason Dohring will have a recurring role. Charmelo reveals, “He’s going to play Juliet’s public school teacher, whom she sees as an ally. As the relationship evolves, her family gets involved.” Given that this is a CW show, the odds of a student-teacher romance developing are high.

Bridget Deals With Her Fake Pregnancy

It will soon become apparent to everyone that Bridget is not actually pregnant. Fortunately, she has a plan. Says Charmelo, “The length of the season will probably span the length of a possible pregnancy so we’re probably looking at about a nine-month window that Season 1 will revolve around…It’s a quandary she finds herself in. At this point, she would be close to two months, so she doesn’t have that much time left before she has to come up with a plan. The options are: get pregnant, fake a miscarriage. If she’s not already pregnant…She was a stripper.”

The Twins Backstory Is Explored

One of the show’s many mysteries is what Bridget did that caused Siobhan to turn her back on her. Charmelo assures viewers that the show will soon deliver an explanation, and it has something to do with the photo of the little boy that was seen in the pilot. “You will probably find out in the second half of the season. It’s certainly part of the sisters’ history and what drove a gigantic wedge between them.” The identity of the person who Siobhan keeps talking to on the phone will be revealed, “Sooner than we thought,” says Vesey. “Siobahn’s world starts to expand. You get a lot more answers very quickly. Then we put her away for a little bit.” Siobhan’s quest will soon lead her out of Paris. “She’ll realize that she’ll need to move around in order for things to work out the way that she wants them to. Being sedentary is not in the cards for her…Bridget is driving this season. But [Siobhan] has always been the one driven by revenge…and Bridget by redemption. Revenge has to rear its beautiful head this season. She’s not always just our punctuation in every episode. It starts to grow.”

Bridget Will Get Some Romance

Bridget is surrounded by hot men: her sexy British husband Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd), the sexy FBI agent who is chasing her, her sexy Narcotics Anonymous sponsor. Yet so far, she has kept all of them at arms length. The producers promise that will change. “We’re going to build up [Bridget and Andrew’s] relationship,” says Carmelo. As for Agent Machado (Nestor Carbonell), “We’ll know why he’s so invested in the case. There’s a history there, why it means so much to him to put this guy away. Eventually we’ll delve into his personal life…Sarah [Michelle Gellar] wants to kiss him, so…”

Henry Gets Desperate

Bridget has adamantly refused all of Henry’s (Kristoffer Polaha) advances, which is confusing for the man who thought he and Siobhan had a love for the ages. (Though if he loves her so much, he ought to notice that she is not Siobhan.) “Henry is a man on the verge from the beginning when he’s deprived of the one thing he wants more than anything,” says Carmelo. “It will drive him to desperate measures.” Vesey adds, “There’s layers. [The show’s creators] talked about the duplicity of the characters. We really find it.”